EDITORIAL: Take-home cars deter speeders

Police Chief Billy Bolin and Fire Chief Mike Connelly told the City Council, meeting in a budget session last week, that heavy use and aging are catching up with their departments' motorized fleets. Bolin said that 66 percent of his department's vehicles have more than 75,000 miles and 19 percent have at least 125,000 miles.

"The state of our vehicles is horrible," Bolin said. "These are not your family station wagons or minivans. These cars are driven hard."

Of course, some of those police cars are driven by off-duty officers, if they are fortunate enough to be assigned take-home cars.

This report brought a reaction from some Courier & Press readers who said the police fleet would last longer with less wear and tear if officers would not be allowed to drive them home.

Perhaps. But overall it would be a mistake, we believe, given the deterrent value of having police cars parked in the city's neighborhoods.

Having even an idle police car sitting in a residential district has to deter potential speeders. Say a speeder turns off of a busy street into a neighborhood, and immediately sees a black and white parked in a driveway. His first instinct is to slow down, making that street safer for children and other pedestrians.